Slitting-machine.



F. G. FEELEY.

SLITTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 9, I9I2.

1 3139 855. Patented May 11, 1915.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

Mix

his ATTORNEY THE NORRIS PETERS 60., PHOTO-LITHQ. WASHINGTON, D. C.

F. G. FEELEY,

SLITTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION mm NOV. 9, 1912.

Patented May 11, 1915.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

m 1 m, Tl I Hi 1 T 5T T11 y a l MW a q fi Wl/VSSES THE NORRIS PETERS Ca,PI-IOTOJJTHCL. WASHINGTON, D. C

UTE TAE PAT @FEEQ.

FRANK G. FEELEY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO M. D. KNGWLTON COMPANY,OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW/V YORK.

SLITTING-MAGI-IINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May fill, 11%15.

T all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FRANK G. FnnLEY, citizenof the United States, and resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook andState of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inSlitting-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in slitting machines for slittingcardboard, paper, or other material in sheet form.

In machines of this class as heretofore constructed it has beencustomary to slit the material by passing it between coacting rotaryknives carried by parallel shafts with the knives of one shaft disposedin para-llelism with those on the other shaft, but all placed in thesame relation to the corresponding knives of the other shaft, that 1s,at the same side thereof. It has also been customary to secure theseknives to collars carried by the respective shafts, with the parts soorganized that the outer faces of each pair of coiiperating knives, thatis, those faces not in contact with the collars, are in engagement witheach other. In such a construction as this, when the knives become wornto any substantial extent, such as would require grinding of the outerfaces thereof, adjustment of the positions of the knives on the shaftsis necessary before further use thereof. A further serious disadvantagein such a construction, especially when the material is to be cut intorelatively narrow strips, is that with the knives on each shaft allarranged in the same relation to the knives on the other shaft, that is,at the same side thereof, the strips being out do not maintain theirparallelism with the axes of the shafts and the cutters thereon, but aretipped downward at corresponding sides thereof owing to the fact thatone edge of each strip when out rests on a cutter carried by one shaftwhile the other edge of said strip is pressed down below the edge of thenext cutter on the same shaft, and the surface of such a strip crosswisethere of makes a more or less acute angle with the axis of the shaftcarrying the knives on which the strip is supported.

The main object of this invention is to eliminate these objectionablefeatures and produce a slitting machine in which no adjustment of anyknife on its shaft is necessary after regrinding its face, this resultbeing obtained by employing a construction in which the inner instead ofthe outer surfaces of the knives secured to the collars on the cuttershafts will cooperate with each other, which in turn permits repeatedgrinding of the knives on their cutting sides, as well as on theirperipheries, until the knives are worn down and relatively thin, and toso organize the parts that each strip will be separated from the sheetto be slit by the conjoint action of a pair of knives carried by oneshaft and located between and coacting with a pair of knives on anothershaft, this mode of organizing the parts resulting in keeping the stripsbeing severed in parallelism with the axes of the shafts throughout theslitting operation.

Other features of the invention not hereinbefore referred to will behereinafter described and claimed and are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is an elevation and partialsection of so much of a slitting machine as is necessary for the properillustration of the present invention; Fig. 2 is an enlarged transversesection of one of the knife-collars and a pair of knives, constituting acutting unit carried by a shaft, the section being taken in the line ofone of the diameters, and Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but is amodification of the invention, illustrating means for cutting a sheetinto wider strips than those cut by the mechanism of Fig. 1.

Similar reference characters designate like parts in all the figures ofthe drawings. Referring first to Figs. 1 and 2, 2 and 3 designateportions of the frame-work of a slitting machine, preferably of standardconstruction, in which shafts for carrying the knives or cutters may bemounted in bearings for rotation, substantially in wellknown manner. Theusual shafts to which such cutters or knives are secured are shown at Land 5, one being located above the other, with their axes in parallelismand the adjacent sides of the shafts disposed at a proper distance apartto permit the nec essary cutting action of the knives. The knives orcutters proper may be any suitable for the purpose, but are preferablyannular knives having chisel edges. It is customary to secure theseknives to collars mounted on shafts and the knives of the presentmachine are intended to be mounted in that manner. Knife-collarssuitable for the purpose are illustrated at 6 and 7, the

collars 6 being those carried by the upper shaft and the collars 7 beingthose of the lower shaft. Preferably, and as shown herein, all of thesecollars are identical in construction and interchangeable with oneanother.

Each of the knife-collars illustrated comprises a central annularmember, the circumference of which is of considerably larger diameterthan the opening in it, and each also has a pair of hubs projecting fromit sidewise, which hubs are shown as of the full width of the collar andare indicated in the collars 6 at 8 and 8, the collars 7 of the lowershaft having hub portions identical in construction with those justdescribed. The oppositely extending hubs 8 and 8, being at theircircumference of considerably smalldiameter than the central mainportion of each knife-collar, leave, as will be clear, two parallelfaces, such as 9 and 9, for locating the faces .of the two knivesintended to be mounted on each collar. These knife-locating faces orcheeks are, as will be evident from the drawings, parallel with eachother and are spaced at the same distance apart in all of theknifecollars.

The cutters or knives usually employed in connection with the collarsjust .described, are annular knives, the openings in which have adiameter which is the same as that of the hub portions of the collarsjust described, in order to enable them to fit snugly in place on saidhubs. This will be evident by referring to Fig. 2. In addition to this,the thickness of each knife preferably corresponds to the extent ofprojection of the hub on which it is mounted, so that when the knivesare in place the collar and the pair of knives carried by it, when theknives are new, form a unit which is ofthe same thickness at all points,except at the chisel edges ofthe knives. Each knife ordinarily is ofconsiderably greaterdiameter than the collar on which it is carried, inorder that each knife may be reground a number of times before it isreplaced by a new one. The manner in which the knives may be secured tothe collars may be any suitable for the purpose of holding them securelyin position, screws, such as 10 and 11, being shown for this purpose. Itshould be understood that the diameter of each knife is such that whenthe collars with the knives in place thereon are slid onto the shafts 4and 5, and assembled in position for slitting the material, the cuttingedges of the knives on one shaft will overlap those on the other shaft aconsiderable distance, which distance is suflicient to permit repeatedregrinding of the cutting edges.

Each of the units, such as shown in Fig. 2, has a central opening ofsuch size that the collar will fit snugly on the shaft, each unitslitting the material.

being pushed into place on its shaft with of the upper and lower shaftsrespectively,

which sleeves are clamped up against the outer ends of the respectiveseries of units or collars, by means of nuts, such as 14 and 15. At theopposite end of eachshaft the collars are located against a suitablestop, which stops are indicated at 16 and 17. Thus by means of a singlestop at one end of each shaft and a collar and adjusting nut at theother end it will be obvious that a whole series of collars on eachshaft may be securely held in place without any other fas tening means,and properly located in the relative positions which they occupy 'for Itwill be noticed that when the units are slid into place and prop erlylocated on each shaft and those shafts are brought into working relationwith each other, the units on each shaft interlock with those on theother and every pair of knives on one shaft cooperates with a pair ofknives located between them but carried by the other shaft. This mode oforganizing the parts assures the cutting of strips from a sheet ofmaterial passing between the knives, which strips will lie parallel withthe axes of the shafts at all times as they pass between the cutters,alternate strips, such as indicated at s and 8, being thrown slightlyupward and slightly downward respectively, as they are cut from thesheet. In this construction it will be seen also that as each collar isof the same width and each knife is secured at its inner side to a checkof that collar, the position of which .cheek never changes and is alwaysin the plane of a corresponding cheek of the cooperating collar on theother shaft, the regrinding of the inner faces or sides of the annularknives does not disturb the cutting relation ofthe parts at all, nomatter how many times the knives may be reground. In all cases the innerfaces of cooperating knives will always move in a commonplane, that isto say, with their cutting edges at the inner sides of the knives incontact with each other. Every unit of the machine is inter changeablewith every other, and regrinding of the knives carried by it will not inany way changevthe spacing of the cutting edges of the knives, as is thecase when collars and knives of the ordinary type are employed, in whichthe outer sides of the knives cooperate with each other instead of theinner sides. From this it will be clear that in the present slittingmachine no adjustment is required to permit the use of reground knives,as the reduction of the thickness of the knives by grinding their beveledges and their inner sides, has no effect whatever upon the spacing ofthe cutting edges.

The general construction of the slitting knives and their mode ofcooperation with the other parts has been described. The specificconstruction of each knife of the upper and lower set is preferably thatillustrated, 7c and is showing coacting knives carried respectively bythe upper and lower shafts, each being an annulus having a chisel edgethe beveled face of which is intended to be ground from time to time tosharpen the knife, as is the inner face of said knife, that is to say,the side thereof of largest diameter. Each knife of the upper seriescooperates with an oppositely disposed knife 76 of the lower series toslit the material by a rotary cutting action of two knife edges rotatingin overlapping paths, as will be evident from an inspection of theoverlapping interlocking relation of the knives in the two series, whichis clearly shown in Fig. 1.

In Fig. 3 there is illustrated a modification of the invention for thepurpose of adapting the knives and their spacing means to the cutting ofmuch wider strips than those out by the knives of Fig. 1. In this viewthe supports, shafts, and other parts, which are substantially identicalwith those of Fig. 1, are indicated by corresponding referencecharacters, these parts being the frame members 2 and 3, the upper andlower shafts 4 and 5, the knives 7c and 7c, the screws 10 and 11 forsecuring them in place, and the nuts let and 15 at corresponding ends ofthe shafts for holding the knives etc., in place. The knife-collars onwhich the knives 7s and 7c are mounted are indicated at 20 and 21 andare considerably wider than those shown at 6 and 7. Each has hubsprojecting from opposite ends thereof as in the case of the collars 6and 7, these hubs being designated respectively by 22 and 22. The knives7c and 7c are also shown in this case as held in place on the collars byscrews, 23, as in the case of the construction first described. Theknives themselves, are, or may be, identical with the knives of Figs. 1and 2 and are disposed in the same manner, facing alternately inopposite directions. In this case, however, the cheeks of the hubs ofthe knife-collars are not in contact, but are held apart by suitablespacing devices, such as spacing collars, 24, these being employed inorder to avoid the necessity of using collars having long, thin hubs.All of the collars 24 should of course be of the same width in order tospace the knives properly, their width being determined by the width ofthe main portions of the knife-collars, the construction being such, aswill be seen, as to permit a pair of knives on the lower shaft to belocated between and in contact with the knives of a coacting pair on theupper shaft. In the construction shown in this view the two shafts 4Land 5 are filled with cutting units and spacing collars from end to endof each shaft, and are held in place against steps, 25 and 26, at oneend of each shaft, by nuts, 14: and 15, at the opposite ends of theseshafts, the sleeves 12 and 13 of Fig. 1 not being employed in thismodification. It will be noticed that while both of the shafts 4 and 5of Fig. 3 have series of similar cutting units and spacing collars, thelower shaft also carries at opposite ends thereof a knife-carrier andspacing device specifically different from anything previously describedherein. The reason for this is that because of lack of space for theregular knife-collar 21 at the ends of the lower shaft, a special collarnarrow enough to fill the space left at each end of the shaft isnecessary. The two devices employed, indicated at 27, are preferablyidentical with each other and interchangeable. Each consists of arelatively wide hub, constituting a spacing device, and a collar properwith a single knifelocating check against which the inner side of thecorresponding knife 70 is located, the knife being secured to the hub bya short screw 28, substantially as before described in connection withthe other parts. The inner cheek of the nut 15 comes up against theouter face of the device 27 at the lefthand end of the shaft, and bypressure against it serves to hold all of the devices on the lower shaftin place, substantially as in the case of the devices on the uppershaft.

It will of course be obvious that in both of the specific types ofslitting machine illustrated, the knives on each shaft are spaced atregular predetermined distances apart, and so located as to interlockwith one another; that all of the cutting units in each form of themachine are interchangeable with one another, with the exception of thetwo special units employed on the lower shaft in Fig. 3 and justdescribed; and that whether the spacing of the knives at predeterminedintervals is eflected solely by the knifecollars, or by theknife-collars cooperating with spacing collars, all of the principalrelations of the parts and their functions are the same in both types ofmachine. In each the knives when in action move in overlapping paths insuch a manner as to make straight cuts through the material, that iscuts which are not distorted by tipping of the strips relatively to theaxis of the lower shaft, and in each case the knives may be reground ontheir inner faces as well as on their beveled edges repeatedly withoutin any way affecting the locating of the cutting edge of such a regroundknife when it is re stored to its original position in the machine forreuse.

What I claim is: a

'1. In a machine of the class specified, a shaft, a plurality of collarsmounted thereon having oppositely disposed knife seating surfaces,annular knives secured at their working faces to said seating surfaces,and said collars having oppositely disposed pro jecting portions adaptedto cooperate with the corresponding projecting portion of an adjacentcollar to thereby space the collars independently of the knives.

2. In a machine of the class specified, the combination with a pair ofparallel shafts, of a plurality of'knife collars carried by each of saidshafts, said collars having oppositely disposed knife locating cheeks,annular knives secured at their Working faces to said cheeks, and saidcollars having oppositely disposed projecting portions extending atleast flush with the outer faces of the knives to cooperate with thecorresponding projecting portion of an adjacent collar to thereby spacethe collars irrespective of the thickness of the knives, and the pairsof cooperating knives having their working faces in the saine plane.

3. In a machine of the class specified, the

combination with a shaft, of a knife-collar carried by said shaft andhaving a pair of parallel knife-locating checks from which projectoppositely extending hubs of smaller diameter than the main portion ofthe collar, and a pair of knives secured to said collar With theirWorking faces adjacent said cheeks.

i. In a machine of the class specified, the combination with a shaft, ofa knife-collar carried by said shaft and having a pair of parallelknife-locating cheeks from which project oppositelyextending hubs ofsmaller diameter than the main portion of the collar, and a pair ofannular knives mounted on said hubs and having their Working facesadjacent said cheeks.

5. In a machine of the class specified, a shaft, a plurality of collarsmounted thereon each having a knife-seating surface, an annular knifesecured to each collar with its working face adjacent said seatingsurface, and means to'space the collars on the shaf independently of'theknives, whereby the same spacing of the collars may be maintainedregardless of the thickness of the V knives and whereby the workingfaces of the knives may be maintained in the sameplane with theirrespective seating surfaces, thereby preserving the spacing of theworking with its working face adjacent its seating surface, and means tospace the collars on the shaft independently of the knives, whereby thesame spacing of the collars may be maintained regardless of thethickness of the knives and whereby the working faces of the knives maybe maintained in the same plane with their respective seating'surfaces,thereby preserving the spacing of the working faces of the knives.

7. In a machine of the class specified, the combination with a pair ofparallel shafts, of a plurality of knife collars carried by each of saidshafts, each of said collars having knife-locating cheeks and an annularknife secured to the collar at each of said cheeks, the working face ofeachknife lying adjacent the corresponding knife-locating cheek, andmeans to space the collars on the shafts independently of the knives,the collars on one shaft being so positioned with respect to those onthe other shaft that the Working faces of the knives of one shaft lie inthe same planes with the working faces of the knives of the other shaft,substantially as described. V

Signed at Chicago, in the county of Cook, and vState of Illinois, thisfourth day of November, A. D. 1912. y

FRANK G. FEELEY.

Witnesses:

RALPH E. CUsHMAN, R. C. GULLEN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. O."

